Bruins forward Brad Marchand actually played a pretty good game Saturday night in Vancouver, despite the fact the B’s were on the short end of a 6-2 loss to their bitter rivals. It’s what Marchand was doing after the whistles, however, that B’s coach Claude Julien wants to see quieted down.
Marchand was his agitating self in the loss to Vancouver, and his antics included some not-so-subtle reminders that Boston won the 2011 Stanley Cup over the Canucks. At one point, Marchand appeared to kiss his ring finger, an obvious reference to a Stanley Cup ring that he has. In the third period, following a scrum with Vancouver forward Ryan Kesler, Marchand skated back to the bench and mimed lifting the Cup over his head.
Marchand has shown in the past that he’s at his best when he’s able to get under the opponent’s skin, but Julien admits Marchand sometimes crosses the line.
“I did hear [what Marchand did], obviously I don’t watch the game, I coach the game, but I heard,” Julien told reporters, according to ESPN.com. “He’s a good player, he’s an agitator, there’s some good things to that part of his game, but there’s certain areas where — I’ve said it before — you can’t cross the line. Sometimes his emotions get the better of him. I mean, we’ve worked with him and we’ll continue to work with him. The perception that it gives our organization is not what you want to see with those kinds of things. I don’t know what he said to you guys, but it’s certainly something that we’re going to deal with. He’s too good of a player. We don’t want him to be a different player, but there’s certain things we want him to be different at. From what I hear what happened, that’s definitely not something we’ll accept in our organization.”
Marchand’s antics certainly weren’t well-received in the Vancouver dressing room, but that’s not really a huge surprise.
“Everyone knows Marchand’s deal,” defenseman Kevin Bieksa said, according to ESPN.com. “I don’t want to get into a war of words but you know what Marchand is like. I think his teammates know what he’s like, too. There weren’t too many guys sticking up for him in those scrums.”
There’s something the Canucks that brings out the best (and worst) of Marchand. The forward scored five goals and added two assists in the 2011 Cup Final. In the two teams’ first meeting after that memorable series, Marchand scored a goal. However, he was also given a 5-minute major for clipping and a game misconduct after low-bridging Sami Salo. That landed Marchand a five-game suspension.
The Bruins and Canucks meet again Feb. 4 in Boston.
